LAS VEGAS – Until this past week, French middleweight Francis Carmont was part of the Tristar gym at UFC 137.

Now he is Tristar gym, as far as its presence at the pay-per-view event goes. Teammate Georges St-Pierre is no longer on the card.

Nevertheless, the welterweight champ has stuck with Carmont despite the knee injury that took him out of the event, and that’s been a big help to the newcomer.

“I can say it’s more difficult,” Carmont told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) of St-Pierre’s absence. “But I can say it’s good because I’ve [had] good training with him.

“I make all my training count with Georges. He gave me a lot of advice for training. He’s a very good guy with a big heart. He’s a real champion.”

Carmont (16-7 MMA, 0-0 UFC) on Saturday meets Chris Camozzi (15-4 MMA, 2-1 UFC) on the preliminary card of UFC 137, which takes place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The bout streams live on Facebook, which serves as a lead-in to prelims live on Spike TV and the event’s pay-per-view main-card.

Although St-Pierre might be out of the fight, he was giving Carmont advice in lieu of sparring as recently as yesterday.

“I can’t say what he told me, but you can see in the cage on Saturday night,” Carmont said with a smile.

Undoubtedly, the champ has briefed his training partner on the dangers of freezing up in his first time in the octagon. Despite 23 fights on Carmont’s resume, Saturday night represents the biggest opportunity of his professional career. All of his fights have taken place on foreign soil. He’s managed to put together a good resume, and most recently stopped UFC vet Jason Day overseas. But this is his first big-time booking.

Carmont said he’s not too worried about the octagon jitters and is simply enjoying the ride.

“I’m very happy to be here today,” he said. “It’s a dream of all the fighter to fight in the UFC. It’s crazy.”

Camozzi, a veteran of “The Ultimate Fighter 11,” returns to the UFC a second time after going 2-1 inside the octagon in the wake of his appearance on the reality show. He most recently won a split decision over Joey Villasenor that was originally ruled a draw before the decision was reversed due to a scoring error.

Camozzi’s release from the UFC, which came following a submission loss to Kyle Noke at UFC 127, raised a few eyebrows given his winning record.

Carmont stands to take a big step up if he can defeat the veteran, and he plans on capitalizing on his good fortune, with or without his teammate fighting alongside him.